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Months after Portland cop mistakenly shoots a man with live rounds loaded into a beanbag shotgun

Back to Main MenuBusiness News HomeFront PorchIt Only MoneyOregon the EconomyPlaybooks ProfitsSilicon ForestWindow ShopStock Market ReportBusiness Public BlogBack to Main MenuVideos from the OregonianVideos from The Beaverton LeaderVideos from the Hillsboro ArgusVideos from The Forest G Swarovski rove LeaderYour VideosView full sizeTyler Tjomsland/The OregonianA day after Portland Officer Dane Reister mistakenly fired lethal rounds from a less lethal shotgun, wounding a 20 year old man in Southwest Portland, then trainingCommander Robert Day participated in a Police Bureau news conference, showingreporters the two different shotguns. At left, Day holds the less lethal beanbagshotgun, its stock conspicuously marked in bright orange. On the right, he holds thestandard shotgun. Day is now Central Precinct commander.Nearly three months after a Portland police officer mistakenly fired lethal shotgun ammunition from a less lethal beanbag shotgun, striking and wounding a suspect, the Portland Police Bureau has yet to take any significant steps to prevent a similar mistake from happening.The shooting remains under investigation, and is to go before a Multnomah County grand jury in October.Yet a review of practices in other police agencies in Oregon and elsewhere, and interviews with firearms experts, suggest there are several changes Portland could make to prevent another mishap.Some agencies, like Washington County Sheriff’s Office, discontinued the lethal shotgun when it brought in less lethal beanbag shotguns, concerned Swarovski about the very mix up that occurred in Portland.The Oregonian continuing coverage of the use of less than lethal weapons by the Portland Police Bureau.”When you’ve got two rounds that go into the same gun that do two different things, there’s potential for mistakes,” said Sgt. David Thompson, of the Washington County Sheriff’s office.When Washington County Sheriff’s Office started using the bean bag shotgun in 1998, it eliminated the lethal shotgun on patrol, Thompson said.Seattle police Officer Tom Burns, a co founder of Critical Research and Training Less Lethal Inc., said training in the last 10 years highly recommends that agencies do not use the same weapon system for less lethal and lethal ammunition.”They really stress you dedicate an individual tool to an individual purpose,” Burns said. “Weapons should not be interchangeable.”Other agencies, such as Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, don’t allow officers to carry both shotguns.If a Clackamas County deputy carries a standard shotgun and becomes trained in the less lethal beanbag shotgun, the deputy has to turn in the lethal shotgun and lethal shotgun rounds. “You will not carry lethal and less lethal rounds together,” said Deputy Don Weatherford, a firearms instructor. “It will not be done.”In Portland, the less lethal bean bag nylon bags filled with lead Swarovski shot that strike with the intensity of a line drive baseball are fired from 12 gauge shotguns whose stocks have been painted bright orange. The less lethal ammunition is painted yellow and clear.In contrast, the lethal shotgun rounds, fired out of the fully black 12 gauge shotguns, are red or blue. Yet they still fit the less lethal shotgun.A Portland directive says police must only load lethal munitions into the lethal shotgun, and less lethal rounds into a less lethal shotgun. Por Swarovski tland police train officers not to carry lethal with less lethal ammunition.But the police bureau’s directive simply states that officers are not allowed to carry 12 gauge lethal rounds on “his/her person or utility belt while also carrying a less lethal weapon.”